I stumbled upon freelance content writing quite by accident in 2007. Now, I am here to stay. The amalgam of my addiction to reading and my natural curiosity make me a good researcher and writer. My areas of interest range from technology to the occult. This blog is meant to showcase my research and writing skills

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Sunday, 12 October 2014

The Intrinsic Joys of Teaching Needlework

Needlework and its myriad branches are subjects
that have never failed to enthral me or to awaken the teacher, the designer and
the explorer in me. I can list at least four reasons why despite being at it
for well over 20 years, I still find teaching the craft captivating.

I enjoy the various facets
of Needlework- Needlework
is a very broad term given to an amazing variety of things you can design
with just a bit of yarn, implements like the humble sewing needle, a pair of
knitting needles, a crochet hook, an exotic tatting shuttle etc., and your
fingers. Although needlework is basically categorized into freestyle
embroidery, counted thread embroidery, and lace making, each of these
labels have under their umbrella, an astonishing number of constantly
expanding styles. For instance, crochet, knitting and tatting fall under
lace making; however, within the category of tatting fall distinct
styles like Cluny tatting, beaded tatting, split ring tatting, needle
tatting etc. Exploring all of these, and developing methods to help my
students understand the nuances mastering them would require, are at the
same time both a challenging and an extremely enjoyable experience.

I enjoy being part of my
students' projects- Why would I enjoy being a part of other
people's projects? As I've mentioned earlier, needlework is a very broad
term, and if I were to try out every project that captivates my
imagination, I would have very little time to expand my horizons and learn
new techniques. Therefore, I love to participate in my students projects
from start to finish and to help them explore multiple ways to use a
design; furthermore, the part I enjoy the most is exploring with them how
different a specific design would look when worked using different design
elements, classes of stitches or styles of embroidery. These exercises
satiate the designer in me.

The more I teach the more I
learn- Upon
reflection, I realize that teaching needlework has forced me to look
at things from other people's point of view; mostly because, I've never
had some of the doubts my students raise when I was learning the
techniques myself. In such cases, I have to first figure out why the
student had the doubt in the first place, find a solution, and then add it
to my repertoire of teaching techniques. In one instance, since I am
right-handed, I found it difficult to address doubts raised by my
left-handed students until one of them pointed out that all I had to do
was use an image editing software to flip the images illustrating the
instructions so I had a mirror image; I'd now have images suited for a
left-handed student. At times, a student would illustrate an easier
technique she had learned from her mom to work a stitch; even though I am
the teacher, teaching needlework is never a one way street, for my
students constantly motivate me to expand my teaching skills and to
explore the use of technology in teaching needlework.

Teaching needlework akin to
meditation- Finally,
teaching needlework and meditating have the same effect on me; in
particular, it's a great stress buster because when I am teaching
needlework I am so into it that for brief periods of time, everything else
ceases to exist.

The joy I get out of teaching my
needlework classes is an almost addictive transcendental experience.